In my previous post, I discussed how the Google External Keyword Tool was showing only 11 months of data. Finally today (January 27) data for the 12 month (December) started appearing.
Why did it take so long? I have no idea. Starting now, I intend to take note each month of when the prior month’s search volume comes online and will share that information on this blog.
UPDATE: Today (2/18/2011) is the first day I’ve seen January 2011 data available. Prior month data appeared 9 days faster than last month.
UPDATE 2: (3/2/2011) I checked to see if February data is available yet. It isn’t. But here’s something interesting: the Local Search Trends column is gone. What’s up with that?
UPDATE 3: (3/17/2011) First day that February data is available. Luck of the Irish.
UPDATE 4: (4/1/2011) As noted in the comments section of this post, all month-to-month data stopped being available sometime last week. There is a thread on Google’s forums about this, including the following explanation:
Hi All,
In an effort to provide the best experience for our Keyword Tool users, we often experiment with ways to offer statistics that are simpler to look at and interpret.When we noticed that most advertisers weren’t using the “Local Search Trends” column in the Keyword Tool, we decided to experiment with removing the column.
If you do use the local search trends data, I’d ask that you please fill out the survey linked from the Keyword Tool (link: https://spreadsheets3.google.com/a/google.com/viewform?formkey=dHAzTkJ2dm1sZnlWbnhpOVpXNURPbXc6MA#gid=0), and describe how you used the local search trend data. We use the survey to find ways to improve the tool and get a better idea of the type of statistics that are helpful from a wider range of users.I’d also like the open the thread up to a discussion of how people on the forum generally used the search trends data. What type of decisions would you try to make from the data? What type of situations would you find it the most helpful? Are there other types of statistics, for example, that would help you make the same decisions easier or faster?
Cheers,ScottGoogle Keyword Tool Engineer
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Now it looks like ALL search volume month-by-month is gone. Have you heard anything about whether this is an error or on purpose? March 2011 – Anna
@anna, Thanks for the comment. I don’t have the answer, but will post it here if I get it.
Thanks for the feedback Will and for the link, I’ve completed the feedback form so fingers crossed enough people do and Google listens. Anna
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